Dems Look to Expand Historic Majorities as Final Votes Are Counted

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1:10History in the making and still unfolding at this hour as Democrats continue to pick up seats across the country. Welcome to CNN's Election Night in America. Continued. I'm Jake Tapper here in Washington, D.C. 245 yes 245 that's how many seats democrats are currently projected to win in the house of representatives in these midterm elections and that number is likely to grow as even more races are called and in the senate democrats are projected to win a majority with at least 54 seats. But that number two could rise because in Mississippi, that race still too close to call. And in Alaska as well, that race too early to call.

1:59Anderson, it's difficult to overstate just how close these two remaining Senate races are. Very close indeed, particularly Alaska and Mississippi. We've seen Cologne going ahead by more than a thousand earlier in the day. I want to go right to Annie Greyer, who's covering events in Jackson, Mississippi. What are you hearing in this hour? Well, Anderson, Democrats are feeling increasingly confident that Colom is going to pull off an upset victory here as they watch these vote totals trickle in. I spoke with Colom earlier today. He was at a lively event at a college campus surrounded by young students, and he said that he believes he is going to win this race as his margin has increased to just over a thousand votes.

2:48And Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is sending in backup resources for Cologne and his campaign to have through this final stretch here across the state as Cologne is working overtime to try and secure the votes here. And election officials are, no, every single vote matters here. We were at a county office earlier today where we saw mail-in votes being counted, officials working overtime trying to get all of the remaining votes counted. But this could take many days to finish up counting all of these ballots. Both campaigns know they are in for the long haul, but they're both projecting confidence at this time.

3:29This is a state that Trump carried by 23 points just two years ago, and Democrats are in striking distance, even though the race is still too close to call, Anderson. All right, Annie Greyer, appreciate it. Manu Raju is also on Capitol Hill for us tonight. So, Manu, Republicans have a couple months left before Democrats take power. What are they anticipating? Well, there's going to be a lot of not just a flurry of legislative efforts, but really on the investigative front. That is something that the administration will have to deal with because Democrats, they all have the subpoena power in both the House and the Senate.

4:03And already there's efforts underway to map out these aggressive investigations that will happen. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in fact, is already issuing letters to various entities, to the administration, asking them to preserve documents as part of its ongoing, upcoming investigation. In fact, today, sending out letters to Elon Musk regarding the slowdown of the Star Shield in Ukraine. Also, there are signals that they plan to look into that Russian diesel deal, sending out letters to ports, companies, others that were involved in it. And that is the Senate side, just one committee.

4:36And then the House, there are several committees that are already gearing up. The House Judiciary Committee, the House Oversight Committee in particular. Look for Jared Kushner to be targeted, some of his business ventures. The president's own crypto business ventures as well. Among the many issues, including the Epstein probe, not going away before the House Oversight Committee and the House Oversight Committee chairman, Robert Garcia Anderson, in the immediate aftermath of calling the House for the Democrats yesterday, said, lawyer up a signal to the administration. Yeah, Manu Raju, thanks very much.

5:06Jake? Thanks so much, Anderson. Here now, Democratic Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona. Senator Kelly, how do you interpret the election results? What message do you think voters were sending your party about what you should be doing when you're all sworn in and take the majority in the House and Senate next year? Well, Jake, I think they want some solutions to their problems. I mean, American families are struggling. Half of families are having a hard time putting food on the table. Young people can't afford housing. Jake, I was a pilot in the U.S. Navy. I was 28 years old, and I was able to buy a house.

5:49That's not the reality for, you know, my kids or young people across the country anymore. And then on top of it, the anxiety of what's going on with, you know, rising prices and AI and, you know, the economy's changing and Republicans in the House and Senate and this White House had no ideas and no solutions for them. Democratic leader Chuck Schumer vowed to end the war in Iran once Democrats take over in January. How will you do that? Well, we're going to put pressure on this president. I mean, we've got tools. He should have never gotten us into this thing. It was a big mistake. I think Donald Trump knows it.

6:30He entered this conflict without a strategic goal, without a plan. He put Pete Hegseth, obviously, as the Secretary of Defense, in charge of this. It has been a complete disaster, and now he's stuck. So we've got tools in the United States Senate and the House, and we're going to put some pressure on this president because he needs to end this because the American people have gotten nothing out of this. There's talk of a move to impeach Hegseth in the lame duck by Republicans. If it fails, would you support it returning a motion to impeach the secretary of defense when Democrats take control? hey pete hegseth jake has been a disaster the most unqualified secretary of defense we have ever had and it isn't even close uh he his plan in iran was ridiculous he bombed over 15 000 targets uh because he had no idea what he was doing and it's been a complete disaster He needs to go.

7:40Donald Trump should fire him. And if he doesn't fire him, we'll see what Republicans in the House want to do. It sounds like they want to impeach him. We'll see what happens with that effort. I would like to see him go as soon as possible because he just is unable to do this job and he's doing significant damage to the U.S. military. I read something in the Wall Street Journal today, and I want to read this one clip. It's about how Trump lost the midterms. It's a good story by Josh Dossie, Alex Leary and Lindsay Wise. But this one part was really interesting about immigration enforcement. Quote, Trump vacillated on immigration throughout the year, sometimes telling aides he wanted a bigger crackdown.

8:29After First Lady Melania Trump complained about people she knew getting deported, the president would tell aides that the architect of his aggressive immigration campaign, Stephen Miller, had gone too far. I thought that was interesting. What's your reaction? Well, I mean, it's always when it comes to his his family, right? It's all about his family. It's it's a corrupt operation that they're running. Donald Trump should make decisions that are in the best interest of the American people and terrorizing communities. We have dead U.S. citizens because of his immigration enforcement policy. That's where he needs to start.

9:07He's made horrible decisions on this issue and so many others. It is a complete failure of leadership. And that's why we had the results we did last night. The American people are fed up. This president is doing nothing for them. You spent this election cycle traveling the country, working hard, stumping for Democrats, coast to coast. you haven't been shy about your possible 2028 presidential ambitions. When do you think you would make a decision? Yeah, I don't know. Right now, I am making a lot of phone calls, congratulating people who won last night. You know, some of these folks I got to know rather well.

9:50A year and a half ago, my daughter told me about this candidate in South Carolina who was a pediatrician. and my 30-year-old daughter said, Dad, you got to go help her. And she's going to do great. And we really need her in the U.S. Senate. So I've been to South Carolina a couple times to support Annie Andrews. I've been in Iowa. I've been in Kansas. I've been in 23 states over the last, I don't know, like this cycle, campaigning for people. So right now, I'm reaching out to them to just congratulate them, offer my assistance. I'll figure the rest of that out later with my family. Thanks so much, Democratic Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona.

10:32Appreciate your time. Thank you, Jake. So no one has said yes to your question of whether they're running for president tonight. The definition of insanity. Just keep doing the same thing over and over. Yeah, I don't expect that they're ever going to say it. But you have to read between the lines. I mean, not never. No one said no. No one has said no. I'm not running for president. and like different ones have leaned more into it. I mean, I think Kelly and Buttigieg have basically been like, you know, I'm working hard. Yeah, I'm working hard. I'm traveling across the country. Westmore and Shapiro, obviously a little bit more coy because they just got reelected.

11:13One potential 2028er said that at least that person's thinking was let the House majority and now the Senate majority, let them sort of get up and running, see how they're doing, let them have their moment or two or three in the sun, and then the games will begin on 2028. So I don't know, maybe spring, early spring, but maybe it won't be that long. There's a lot of football to be played before anybody's going to be throwing their hat into the ring officially. Yeah, that's true. Democrats are elated right now. We have no idea what the world's going to look like in January. You know, well, and also, I mean, we're talking about what the Democratic majority is going to look like, that they have a bigger majority than we expected.

12:00When they start running in the primary, that field will also have quite the range from the more moderates to the more progressive left members who are feeling really good after what happened last night. So that'll also be a factor into all of this. And the Republicans are grappling with a very different version of that question. of course, just like analyzing how bad last night went, how it went so much worse than they expected and what that means for them going forward. And, you know, you know, we've been talking about the war a lot. Mark Kelly just mentioned it and how he does not believe Hexeth has done a good job with it.

12:31The president was asked today, when is the Iran war going to end? Because he said on the campaign trail, gas prices will go down the day after the election. The war will end saying Iran would make a deal. And he said it's going to end when I want it to. The other thing about Democrats is because they've been in the minority, they've been able to avoid making tough decisions, tough choices. And I'm just reminded of one of the reasons why the Biden administration immigration enforcement policy was not particularly popular by the end was because there was kind of a refusal to make a decision. Were they going to do what Obama did and actually enforce immigration law and then risk being unpopular among a group of Democratic voters and progressive activists?

13:19Or were they going to acquiesce? And ultimately, he didn't really do anything and it just became a muddle. So right now, Democrats are really happy because they've won and they haven't actually said, but here are the seven things we're going to do on immigration. You know what I mean? Yeah, no. And by not making a decision, it was a decision. The border just remained. Right, for Biden. for Biden the way it was. And so is that a lesson that Democrats take on issues that the voters were so crystal clear that they want Democrats to deal with? Now, the reality is that they have the majority in the House.

13:57They have the majority in the Senate. They do not have the White House. They don't have a super majority. They certainly don't have a veto veto proof majority in the Senate. But they at least need to try to figure out a way to show and not show votes, but actually show that they can come up with with things where they may be able to pick off some Republicans who also want to be able to show people back home that they're not just Trump Republicans, that they can get stuff done, that that's a message. A lot of those Republicans that would want to get things done with Democrats were just defeated.

14:28Yeah, well, that that is true. Pretty handily. But I mean, it's just like take the environment. That's another one. Right. To Democrats, are Democrats going to lean into fuel production at home and fracking and oil drilling, or are they going to try to do more to combat climate change? These are going to be vicious debates just within the Democratic Party. But also, I mean, when it comes to energy, the president is trying to increase refining capacity in the U.S., but I talked to an energy advisor of his last week who said that first refinery will be done at least before the end of the president's term.

15:04I mean, I mean, that's a long term kind of thing that Republicans have been pushing. But in terms of what Republicans and Democrats are grappling with now, Democrats want to avoid the mistake that Republicans just paid for last night, which was making all these big promises in 2024 about lowering the cost of living, handling the economy better than President Biden did. The president said bringing gas down at two dollars a gallon. You heard Byron Donald's and your great interview saying when gas is four dollars a gallon, it's pretty hard to run on anything else. Voters can't ignore that. And so Democrats won't be able to say in two years, we delivered on what we told you we were going to at least help you with.

15:39I mean, J.B. Pritzker was telling me today he just won re-election as governor of Illinois. He wants them to pass a bill immediately on raising the federal minimum wage. He thinks that's something Democrats could at least signal on. And so they have plans. They have goals. The question is them being aligned and what that looks like while also dealing with Donald Trump still in the White House. The last time that happened, the increase of the federal minimum wage, I think, was under new Speaker Pelosi in 2007 when she took office. I think that was one of the first things they did. When we come back, we're going to speak with two Democrats who flipped Republican-held seats, including one who will become the first Democrat in nearly 30 years to represent Montana, Big Sky country, in the House of Representatives.

16:28Life is all about making decisions. Sometimes you make questionable ones, like buying a new TV that's too big for the wall because the electronics store employee was a little too good at their job. Then sometimes you make great ones, like protecting your home and auto with Progressive. You get customized coverage options so you can be sure you have the right coverage. Get your quote today at Progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company affiliates and other insurers, not available in all states. This podcast is supported by Anthropic, the public benefit corporation behind Claude. Everyone's got a hard question about AI.

17:06Anthropic was built to surface those questions and share what it finds along the way, because there's hope in hard questions. Ask yours at Claude.ai slash Spotify and keep thinking. That's Claude.ai slash Spotify.

17:27And welcome back to our continuing election night in America. Democrats picking up dozens of Republican House seats across the country. Seems John King looking closely at Montana's first congressional district where a Democrat had not won in almost three decades. Almost three decades, and that is part of a huge sweep. Democrats right now leading in 261. They have 245 seats that we've called. But I just want to look at where that race fits in. You're talking about in Montana. Look at these districts lit up on the board. Now, these are districts that Trump won by between 10 and 20 points just two years ago, by 10 to 20 points two years ago.

18:03Seventeen of them you see on the wall are now have been won by Democrats. Seventeen of them. That includes where you're about to go to speak to the winner, Anderson. This is Western Montana, beautiful country, Flathead, Missoula, Butte way out there. President Trump won this district by more than 11 points, nearly 12 points. Again, just two years ago. But Sam Forstag will come to Washington as the congressman elect and be sworn in in January. It's a remarkable development in a year where the Democrats are winning across Trump country. We focus in Texas. We focus on South Carolina. Well, the Trump's Austin stretches all the way to Montana.

18:37I want to actually bring in joining me now is the congressman, congressman elect Sam Forstag. Mr. Forstag, appreciate you being with us. what message do you believe voters in Western Montana sent last night? Thank you for having me, Anderson. Last night, the message that won us this election with a 15-point swing is one of hope. It's that politics should not just be a place where we scream into our cell phone screens about everything that's wrong with the other party, as much as there might be wrong with the party in power right now. It should be a place where we talk about real solutions and about the fact that, you know, Well, working people in a democracy and our democracy can still step up and build power of our own and make it to a place like Congress.

19:19I think that's how we brought folks together. And that is how we've got our first Democrat going to Congress from Western Montana since 1994, the year I was born. You've got a really remarkable background. You're what's known as a smoke jumper, which is a firefighter who parachutes into really difficult areas to try to stop fires in their initial stages before they get out of control. I know also you're a labor organizer. Is there something about smokejumping that you think lends itself to being a congressman? Yeah, I mean, I miss it just hearing you talk about it, Anderson. Smokejumping is, you know, jumping into the most remote areas of our public lands to put out fires while they're small.

19:57And we've talked a lot in this campaign about the fact that whether it's the doge cuts over the last couple of years or the chaos and corruption that we're dealing with at the federal level, We're fighting a fire of greed just burned out of control right now. And we I mean, when you get on the ground, whether you're fighting a fire or framing a house, you don't ask the person besides you who they voted for last year before you start swinging a tool to fight it. You just get to work and get that job done. That is a basic skill set that my dad, a kindergarten teacher, teaches his five year olds every year.

20:28And that seems direly lacking in Congress right now. A whole lot of the folks that voted for us this election are not people who are jazzed right now about being Democrats. But there are folks who would come up at our events and say, I'm so excited just to see a normal working person running for Congress. And I think that kind of working class sensibility is precisely what we're lacking. It's a perspective that we're lacking, frankly, in the Democratic Party as well, that I'm so excited to be hopefully a beacon of hope for changing in the country. where we can show people that working people, union members, we're not just something the Democratic Party is for, but we're something the party's composed of.

21:05Well, obviously voters have registered frustration with the economy. Do you think it's going to be tough for Democrats to tackle that and address the appetite for real oversight of the White House? I mean, to you, is one more important than the other? Yeah, I think we've got to prioritize the economy, the problems that are right in front of people's faces. I mean, I can tell you even when I was parachuting into wildfires for the federal government until the end of 2024, I was making 19 bucks an hour doing it in a community here in Missoula where you'd be lucky to find a home for less than a half million dollars.

21:38The issue that most people are facing every day is, do I have enough money? Do I have enough money to pay rent or my mortgage? Is my Social Security check enough to actually cover costs? And the answer is usually no. Let's deal with those issues first. Let's get to all the rest later. We can conduct oversight while we're passing bills to tackle a housing crisis or get working people access to free and affordable health care. But we've got to prioritize those economic issues first and remind people that government can and should be something that actually improves our lives on a material basis.

22:09If we want to give people faith that they should continue to elect Democrats in 2028 so we can build the kind of power we need for big fundamental reforms here. Yeah. Congressman-elect Sam Forstack, I really appreciate talking to you. Thanks so much. Good luck to you. well likewise anderson thanks uh from mondan montana down to nevada uh walks through what happened so again you just pop out to the national map first and you just look at the sweep 17 districts donald trump won by between 10 and 20 just two years ago anderson and they stretch all the way from new jersey in the carolinas you see across the country indiana kentucky but this one here remember the president's big rise in latino votes from 20 to 2024 four.

22:50See those in Texas and all the way out to here. You're in now in Nevada across this district essentially slices the state in half. There's a district down here by Vegas, another one to the south. But this is across the state. It's a massive district. Has Reno, has Carson City. And again, look, Trump won this by 14 points, 14 points. The president won it two years ago. And Teresa Benitez Thompson is now the Democratic Congresswoman elect. Wow. Jake, over to you. Thanks so much, Anderson. And now we're going to talk to Congresswoman-elect Teresa Benitez Thompson from Nevada. And the district she won is northern Nevada, includes Reno and Carson City.

23:27Congresswoman-elect, congratulations on the win. You flipped a district that Democrats have never won. What message do you think your voters were sending to President Trump or to the Democratic Party? so in my race in particular we've got a lot of rural areas out here in beautiful northern nevada and you saw frustration across the board we have one va that's in reno now to give you an idea of how big the district is you can drive from one side of the district to the other it's going to take you about six and a half hours or so so if you're in a rural town that's three hours away and you're a veteran and you want to get to the va hospital you're going to be driving three hours.

24:11This means that the cost of gas is felt by you exponentially. We have agriculture up here in northern Nevada as well. The cost of diesel has been hard hitting in our agricultural areas. People have been talking about their needs. Families like mine, I've got four kids, have been talking about how we want Washington, D.C. to put us back in focus. And I believe that's the message that was sent. Been a lot of criticism of Democrats for decades now for not spending enough time looking at the struggles of rural America. Have you shared those disappointments with the Democratic Party? I talk all the time about what we ought to be doing.

24:56I'm a social worker by profession, and I've worked out in the rural areas in health care. I've heard from folks over the years that they need good, vibrant social safety nets to support them. But First and foremost, they want a great job that's going to pay them well and give them a quality of life where they can take care of their kids, where they can afford a home, where they can save a little bit for retirement. And every once in a while, after weeks of working hard, they can take a vacation. So taking these voices and making sure that they're visible is what's most important to me. Taking our rural voices and our community voices to Washington, D.C.

25:32is going to be very important. And we need to listen to these voices. We've been handed a golden opportunity, a megaphone for these communities. I intend to use that megaphone for them. You're also going to be making history as the very first female Hispanic member of the House representing Nevada in your state across the country. We saw Latino voters swing back toward Democrats after years of Republican gains within the community. Trump won Latino men two years ago. He won all he won Latinos in Texas two years ago. Why do you think the Latino community has swung back to the Democrats? Because I think we're going to do a better job at meeting their needs.

26:14They gave the last administration an attempt two years to try to make things better for them. And they saw the opposite happen. They say themselves in a much more vulnerable place than they ever thought that they would be. They see their families in a much more vulnerable place than they ever thought they would be. I spent a lot of time talking with small business owners, especially Latino small business owners. They want to make this community a better spot and they feel like instead what happened in this administration turned against them. They are here to make the community vibrant and strong and they just want a fair playing field like every American family does.

26:48And so that's what we need to give to them. We need to recognize the contributions that everyone in the community brings, fight for everyone and make sure that policies are lifting families up. What legislation do you want Democrats to take up first? What are your priorities specifically? Out of the gate, I really hope that we are talking about tariffs and trade war, because I think this administration's policies has direct ties to the the rise in cost here in Nevada. Families, households on average, households like mine are paying more than two thousand dollars extra in services and products and goods because of these trade wars, because of tariffs.

27:28we can end those and stop those. Congress can use and exert its constitutional authority to make sure that we are bringing down prices immediately. And I think it's what the American public expects of us, quite frankly. I think they want to see that happen in very short order after we get sworn in. Congresswoman-elect Teresa Benitez Thompson, congratulations. Thank you so much. Coming up, we've heard what plenty of Americans think about this massive Blue Nami, but how is this going over with U.S. allies and adversaries? Farid Zakaria will bring us all the insight next.

28:10Progressive's Accident Response can contact emergency services if you're in a major accident. The only thing worse than someone you love being in an accident is not being able to help them. So Progressive is here to help when you can't. So get peace of mind knowing your loved ones are protected with Progressive's accident response. Learn more at Progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates, limited availability in California. Driver is responsible for emergency and towing charges not covered by the policy. Coverage subject to policy terms and conditions. Welcome back to CNN's special coverage of these consequential midterm elections.

28:44Republicans got a shellacking last night, even worse than many of their worst predictions. And Vice President J.D. Vance says he knows why, writing on social media quote, the reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night. If you'd like to argue it was worth it that losing the Senate for the next six years was worth it, then do so. Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that's at least honest. The war started by his boss, President Trump, who will be speaking to reporters, who will speak to reporters today, did not seem to have any regrets. At the same time, if I had it to do again, I'd have to do it again because long term, It's the only answer.

29:23You can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon. Right now, talk about it. CNN's Fareed Zakaria. So, Fareed, what message do you think it sends America's allies and adversaries, for that matter, when voters so resoundingly reject the sitting president's party?

29:38I think, Anderson, everyone is still trying to make sense of it. And I'd say there are two sets of issues people are trying to understand. One, does this represent a kind of peak of right-wing populism? You know, after all, Viktor Orban lost his election. Bolsonaro lost his election. That's Hungary. That's Brazil. There's a sense that maybe Andy Burnham in Britain, the prime minister as centrist, is doing well. So people are trying to get a sense of, are we at peak populism? And that's a hard one to figure out. I think it's fair to say that people have come to recognize that many of these right-wing populists don't have answers to many of the problems they pose.

30:22They might accurately notice a problem, but their answers when they're in power don't seem to deliver. And that is an important step forward. The second, of course, is will this make a difference in the way Trump treats America's allies? Will this change his foreign policy? And there, I'm not as confident because at the end of the day, the president has enormous unilateral authority. Trump is a very confident man. The idea that he would look at this and say, oh, I better trim my sails or, you know, I better be nicer to the Europeans. I'm not sure that that's how he acts. He's impulsive. He's emotional.

31:03He's not particularly strategic. He spent 20 minutes today talking about the ballroom. I mean, I don't think he's going to change. And after 20 minutes on the eve of the midterms, talking about the algae in the pool. So I think, you know, you're exactly right. He's, you know, He's an 80-year-old man who does his thing, and he seems like it often happens that people say about older people, they become more like themselves. So I think what we're likely to see in the last two years of Donald Trump is more Trumpian behavior, by which I mean impulsive, unilateral. I think that there is one limiting factor.

31:48He does seem to realize that the war has cost him a lot. This is the most unpopular war in American history. It has been unpopular from day one, which is very rare. As you know, most wars in Vietnam, the Iraq war were popular when they started. And after years got unpopular, this has been unpopular for day one because nobody could understand why in God's name he started it after having claimed to have obliterated Iran's nuclear program just six months earlier. So I think that, but again, there is hope. I've talked to a few leaders around the world, and they all feel like, you know, at the end of the day, politicians do read the poll results.

32:31They take in what, I mean, they are political creatures. So it may moderate them somewhat. At least that is the hope abroad. But I think the larger hope is for many kind of people at the center, maybe what we are seeing is peak populism and we're getting back to some kind of more normal politics. You see it with the Republicans, you know, people like DeSantis talking about how only Trump could get away with what he's getting away with. The rest of us have to get back to normal politics. What do you think happens with the war?

33:05You know, I think Trump has actually been searching for a way to settle it. he wants to be able to claim he won. And it's a hard thing to do because that wouldn't be an accurate statement. But, you know, he did do the memorandum of understanding. He's threatened a lot of force in the last several weeks, but he hasn't actually used it. I think in this case, Anderson, both sides overplayed their hand. When the Iranians felt they had the advantage, they started to make, you know, demands, their demands kept escalating and you couldn't get to a deal. Now, frankly, the blockade on Iran is working well.

33:48The Iranians are squeezed. They've been coming forward with proposals. And Trump seems to be reluctant. You know, each time one of the two sides has an advantage, they're reluctant to close the deal because they feel they can press that advantage. But I suspect we will actually resolve this because, look, if the midterm showed anything, this is not a war to escalate. This is a war to settle. I mean, it's sort of an odd question, but how important do you think it is to America's reputation that the president is not contesting the results or calling the elections rigged? I thought that was fascinating.

34:28And he did it very quickly and, you know, without any hesitation. I think it proves something that I think some of us have always known. The president is, you know, intensely focused on himself. Some people would call that narcissism. If other Republicans lose, it's completely fair and it's okay. And if they lose, right, right. If other Republicans lose, that's all well and good. It's only when he loses that the system is rigged. He throws a tantrum. He bends the Constitution. You know, I think that's the reality. And people, you know, people around the world have understood this is a very personalistic White House, that this is a president with whom you make personal deals.

35:14You don't try to make country-to-country deals. You're making person-to-person deals. And that has made it easier for some countries, you know, small, rich dictatorships, to make deals with the United States. It's made it harder, frankly, for democracies where that kind of thing is much more difficult from European countries to India to actually conduct normal foreign policy. Fareed Zakaria, appreciate it. Thanks very much, Fareed. Amid all of this great news for Democrats, there are still a number of warning signs that they are going to want to take seriously. We'll break that down just ahead.

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36:47That's claude.ai slash Spotify.

36:55The voters have delivered a mandate for change and it is change they will get. We will lead with a politics of courage, not convenience. Progress will not be halted by partisanship and Texas will bow down to no one. Welcome back. That was Texas Governor-elect Gina Yonohosa last night after she defeated Republican incumbent Greg Abbott in the race for governor. Casey Hunt is here. There's some warning signs, troubles ahead for Democrats that they are going to face. What are you looking at? Yeah, so these are some of the voter polls that, of course, we've been hearing from David Chalian about all throughout our coverage here.

37:37But let's look at this. OK, so for Democrats who are thinking, what is our mandate? The favorable view of the Democratic Party among our voter polls, 47 percent, that's underwater. It's 52 percent of them are view it, view the Democratic Party unfavorably. So that tells you something. When we dig into the issues, you look at who can better handle the economy. Forty four, 45 percent say I'm sorry, this is foreign policy. Forty five percent say the Democratic Party. Thirty eight percent say the Republican Party, but 17 percent say neither party. So, again, a real split that doesn't actually reflect just how well Democrats did in some of these races and underscore some of the challenges for the party.

38:21When we look at who can better handle immigration, again, a split. Forty one, forty three, neither party. Fifty percent. I mean, that does represent a significant drop for Republicans who were more trusted on this issue before we saw some of President Trump's, particularly his enforcement policies on the streets of American cities. But again, this AI question is another one. This is also an economic question. 30 percent say Democrats better equipped to handle AI. 27 percent say the Republican Party. But 43 percent here say neither party. And, you know, this one, Anderson, I think really digs into that issue of trust that we have seen at part of a change election like this.

39:02And one of the major narratives here has been people just don't trust the system and AI in particular. And we saw it show up as data centers, right, as an issue. People are kind of taking it out on data centers. But when you really dug in with voters about it, it was that they felt out of control of their own lives because they weren't sure where that was going. So, again, some warning signs here for the Democratic Party as to where they take this mandate. Yeah, listen, this was an election where people voted for change. We've had a series of change elections. You know, there wasn't great love for Donald Trump in 2024.

39:34People wanted to fire the administration they had because they felt the problems they cared about. Many of the same problems they're complaining about today weren't being addressed. So the mandate for the Democratic Party is to do what it can to genuinely respond to these concerns that people have in their lives. And, you know, within the limitation of they got it. The president has to cooperate. They're only part of the government. But they have to be a driving force here. Look, I mean, I think that the emergency for everyday people is three things. It's gas, groceries and health care. And people, I mean, I have a cousin who called me saying, well, are gas prices coming down this week, next week, the week after?

40:23Democrats haven't even been sworn in yet. And people are expecting change right now. So the problem is on the gas, we don't have much leverage. That's about the war. Groceries, how you get prices down is hard. Really, what you want to do is get wages up. But on the health care, that is something that I think we could, on an emergency basis, both parties could come together and say, we've got hospitals closing. We've got, you know, these cuts that are coming. Nobody should suffer and die because they can't see a doctor in America. It doesn't have to be Medicare for all and a bunch of crazy stuff.

40:55But we can do something to help people. I think if you don't see Democrats leaning in and not just passing message bills to make Republicans look bad, but really trying to find how we can help each other, I think we're going to be in trouble. But maybe see a difference. Well, looking at the Hinojosa win in Texas and then looking at that slide, Casey, that you put up about immigration, I think this is going to be one of the first areas where you're going to see Democrat promises running headlong into possible governing issues. In a state like Texas, Hinojosa has promised to end cooperation with ICE.

41:28Now, immigration is still a pretty good issue for Republicans. It's probably our best issue in the election. And I suspect there's a heck of a lot of her new constituents who would love to see further cooperation continue so that they get bad people off the streets. But what if she shows up in Texas and actually follows through on that promise and says, I'm no longer cooperating with ICE? That puts her in immediate conflict with the federal government. It's going to put her in immediate conflict with a heck of a lot of her constituents, some of whom may have voted for her. I think Democrats are going to have to make choices like that around the country, particularly in some of these states that aren't used to having Democrats in charge.

41:59Yeah, I mean, the question is whether I there was a the vote in Texas was really a repudiation, not just the president's policies. But part of that was ICE and the overreach of ICE. Those communities have experienced it. Those were communities that wanted border security. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Those are security. Those were communities that wanted border security. They voted for Trump back in 2024 because of it. they did not vote for the overreach and the abuse that we've seen with ICE. And that's one of the reasons why you have a Democratic governor, why you have a Democratic governor there, why you have a Democratic senator there.

42:38And really, Democrats do have to send a signal that, yes, we need border enforcement. Yes, we need to enforce our immigration laws. But we have to do it in a way that doesn't sprawl into the kind of harassment that we've seen. operation. We can argue about it. She ran on it. If she wants to do it, we'll see. But the other thing is you mentioned the AI stuff. That's a big deal, too, because that's freaking out the young people. It's scaring people with the data centers. There are bipartisan solutions there as well. And that's a huge issue in Texas as well. I mean, you want to go to one of the reasons why Greg Abbott lost this race.

43:13I mean, you saw him kind of go back and forth on this. He had initially embraced it from an economic perspective, and then he realized he saw the same polling the White House was trying to get the president of the United States to believe that this was something you should walk back a little bit. So one thing that has not been proposed is we should rate and rank these data centers. You should have an A-plus data center that's good on water, good on energy, good for the community, B, C, all the way down to F, which Elon Musk has, and Colossus is poisoning Memphis. And then you can have a rational discussion about what kind of data center to have.

43:44But there's no federal standards. There's no federal leadership. And that's why this whole thing is a mess. But Van, you keep talking about bipartisan cooperation. they're going to have massive majorities in the House and the Senate. It comes down, as we've said earlier tonight, to the president of the United States and whether he wants to cooperate with us. He has not shown an inclination to be a driving force on federal regulation. You know this better than I do. If we have 55, 56 seats, could you think that these issues, the health care, the AI, we could get four Republicans to have a veto proof majority and then go or no?

44:19I think the main deal maker is going to be Trump. I think you're going to see some Republicans who don't necessarily want to cooperate with Democrats. But Trump's instinct, I'm telling you, is going to be, let's make some deals. Let's start doing that. I mean, remember, you told me once in this studio acts that Donald Trump is a popularist. What if a popularist is somebody who signs bills and does things and his instinct is still there? Huge historic wins for Democrats in races across the country over the past 24 hours. What a 24 hours it has been. The party could see even more. We're still watching two key Senate races in Mississippi and Alaska.

44:54CNN's election coverage continues after a quick break.

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